NotSheep

We’re all sore and tired, we can’t find anything ’cause it’s all still in boxes, and we don’t know what all the switches do (or how to work the heating). We must be moved in.

Actually, I know we’re moved in, because we’ve done the ritual setting-off-the-smoke-alarm-while-cooking.

Moving day was…interesting. The cats were speyed the day before, and one of them bit her stitches out so had to be returned to the vet during the move. That meant both of them had to go, since we’ve only got one cat-carrier. She had to have an anaesthetic to replace the stitches, and we had to wait until the vet phoned and gave us 10 minutes notice to come and pick her up at some unpredictable time. Made it all very plan-able, I must say.

Massive thanks are due to K & A, who helped us move. I hope A’s legs feel better soon…

We don’t have broadband yet, hence the lack of blog posts. Dial-up is incredibly frustrating - and we’ve only had broadband less than a year! Obviously it’s completely addictive.

Barney is sleeping on a mattress on the floor of George & Freddy’s room “until I get used to the house” - which is fine, because a) the room is huge and b) it means the floor gets cleared at least once a day.

We bought the refrigerator and dishwasher from the old owners, since they fit and match - which leaves us with an extra kitchen in the garage. Anyone want to buy a cooker, a large larder fridge or a dishwasher? All under a year old…how much money would I have saved in my life if I’d had a crystal ball?

Right now, my children are giving a rendition of The Toy Dolls’ version of “Nellie the Elephant”. All together now…. wooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO……

…we have broadband again

We’d actually only had broadband for less than a year before we moved here, but I certainly don’t remember dial-up being so frustratingly sloooooowwwwww before. It didn’t really bother me much then. Now - life on dial-up - argh!

We got an email on Thursday (that was June 9th, btw) to say that our broadband would go live on June 8th. Yes, you read that right. Anyway, Scratchy was determined to get stuck in right away and get the whole network up. I offered to help, but he was in I-am-man-technical-expert-don’t-dare-question-me mode, so I went to sleep and left him to it. And woke up on Friday morning to find that he still hadn’t managed to get connected. During the day on Friday I noticed that he didn’t have microfilters on all the sockets (just on one), so when he got home I asked him…and we put microfilters on all the sockets, and I looked at the modem settings and made one small change - and woohoo! working broadband and network. It probably goes without saying that Scratchy’s feelings about this are very mixed - on the one hand, he’s pleased to have broadband back, on the other hand, he spent two hours mucking about and I got it up in about a minute and a half

What else? Well, we like the house. It’s so much more spacious than where we were before, and it’s bright and airy and we’re slowly getting there with the unpacking. The weather has been wonderful so the kids have been outside a lot, and I’m really liking having an enclosed garden again, because it means I don’t always have to be outside with Jack (3yo). There are lots of children around the area; we got home about 8pm on Wednesday and Barney asked if he could go across the road to where a couple of boys his-age-ish were sitting “to try to make some friends” - I’m pretty impressed by the confidence he’s developed (and without any arrogance, which is lovely). When Jack wanted to go with him, Barney even came back and got him and they sat and chatted to the other boys. Since then, they’ve met about ten other neighbourhood kids - which is fantastic, because one of the reasons we chose this house was that there seemed to be plenty of children around We’ve even had other kids come knock at the door for ours about four times already I’ve always been keen on the idea of other kids hanging out at our house - I reckon that way you know where your kids are and what they’re up to, plus you get to know their friends - and glancing out the window last night there were at least eight of them in our back garden - so I’m feeling really good about all that.

We’ve met the mum and children who live on one side; they seem really nice, the girl is a few months older than Barney and the boy is a few months older than Jack. We’ve only met one of the kids from the other side, but again she’s about Barney’s age or slightly older (and I think there’s a younger girl there too). They all seem fine - a bit baffled by us home-educating, but that’s a common (and fairly innocuous, I suppose) response.

Oh, and I met the local midwives - but I’ll blog about that separately - it was good

A couple of things I meant to mention but forgot to blog.

Our cats are fine and settling in. We’re thinking we may even allow them to go outside on Monday - pick up their food on Sunday night so they come back hungry. We’ll have been here two weeks, and it will have been two weeks since they were speyed too. We’ve inherited at least one new cat along with the house - his/her markings are very similar to Ginny’s, so Jack keeps saying “Dat’s Ginny’s friend!”. He/she is very wary - won’t come indoors, but does sleep in a box out the back and does keep coming back to be fed out there. There are two other cats that also visit occasionally, one of which I think belongs to a teenage boy down the street and has just has kittens. Scratchy is less than impressed by this increase in our menagerie We’re dog-sitting for friends in late August (a miniature schnauzer), and Scratchy doesn’t know this, but there are rabbits on offer from another home-ed family and Barney is keen…have to investigate how they’d get on with the cats first though.

Bookcases - we need more bookcases. I went to B&Q to buy another one the same as the one in the dining-room, but had to come back without, because - get this - bookcases are “seasonal items”. Wahuh?

This country is in desperate need of an Ikea

Four posts in one day!

Been playing with Wordpress tonight, so thought I’d blog before going to bed

Our boys are still popular around the neighbourhood (possibly even moreso now the swing-set is up); we had to answer the door twice during dinner - one of those times to be greeted with five girls of varying sizes asking for our lot :lol:. They’re really enjoying meeting all these new friends - it’s getting them inside in the evening that’s the problem!

We decided to be brave and let the cats out this afternoon. They were very funny to watch - a bit like a toddler paddling in the ocean for the first time. First Ginny put one paw out, then paused, then another paw, another pause - and once she had all four paws out, she stood in a panic for a moment then leapt back inside :lol:. Then she went off and got Molly, who was slightly braver, and they did a whole “you go first”, “no you go first” act at the door. Eventually they did both emerge, and they thoroughly investigated the garden. Molly even checked out next door’s garden at one point, but I think they mainly stuck close to home. They came in again while we were having dinner, then went back out afterwards, but came straight in when Barney called them at about 9pm. I’m really more of a dog-lover than a cat-lover, but I must admit that now we’ve had cats a while, I’m enjoying their antics too

Jack, who has been sleeping in George & Freddy’s room, has returned to my bed this evening, having woken up crying and, when Scratchy tried to comfort him, yelled “Go away” and thrown his underpants at him

I didn’t choose that title; the Beeb producer doing the Schools Radio show that Barney has been doing chose it - although she chose it for the title of the programme, I just copied it here

We got the CD with the finished show on it yesterday, and listened last night. It’s a very fair representation, which is what I’d expected (after meeting her, I’d have been really surprised if she’d done a hatchet-job). The programme involved two children who are home-educated (Barney and his friend S, who’s just recently come out of school) and two children who board at school (a 12yo and an 8yo). Barney came across as slightly awkward - he was being very careful about speaking clearly and so ended up saying everything very slowly - and mentioned that he missed “being able to go to people’s houses after school” - something I think he only ever did about twice, not counting the friends whose houses he still visits But he also talked about being able to do lots of things he “couldn’t do if I was at school”, and said he preferred being home-educated to going to school. Overall the programme was very good, and I think it will go down well in classrooms when it’s broadcast (which is to be in November). At the beginning of it, the producer had asked some school-children to say what they thought it would be like to never go to school, and the main concern for most of them was missing out on playing football! I wonder if they ever sit down and add up just how much football-playing time they get on an average school day…and how much more time for football they’d have if they weren’t lining up for assembly and the lunch-hall

Anyway, Barney has had fun making the programme, and because we were away when the editing was being done, he’s still to go into the Beeb and see how editing for radio all happens, and he’s looking forward to that too.

We’d a very productive day today - at least, what we did is actually visible, which makes a nice change. We spent most of the day sorting out the garage. I’m not sure this was really a priority, but at least now the boys can get their bikes out without knocking over half the boxes, and I know what’s still in there to be brought into the house and sorted. The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny, and the boys were out playing with friends all day again. They even helped the boy across the street wash his mum’s car - now how do I get them to do mine, which definitely has a greater need?

The cats spent the day exploring too, though there was an hour or so this evening when Ginny had come in but Molly was nowhere to be seen - Barney went and called her every ten minutes or so, and Scratchy - get this, Scratchy, the cat-hater! - even offered to drive around the neighbourhood and look for her! (I resisted asking just what he was going to do if he saw her, given that he can’t bear to touch them :lol:) I asked several times if we were sure she wasn’t already in the house somewhere and was assured that she definitely wasn’t. And then…a meowing sound from what has become known as “the purple room” (the spare room, currently a sorting-and-organising station for toys, clothes, whatever)…and guess who emerged when Barney opened the door….

Everyone’s now in bed - a lot earlier than the last few nights, but they really were getting too cranky for me to tolerate much longer - and at least two of them are asleep already. They’ve had a terrific weekend playing with friends, we’ve got most of the house into some sort of live-in-able fashion, and we’ve got a car full of broken-down cardboard boxes and bubble-wrap to be disposed of tomorrow. Not bad going really

This is beyond belief.

Now I like dogs. And I’d quite like us to get one. But if I had concerns about my dog attacking my child, I would be locking up the dog, not my child.

The woman says “My kids got along great with (the dogs). We were never seeing any kind of violent tendencies.” - so why did she tell her 12yo son to stay in the basement while she went shopping?

There is a lot about this story that doesn’t make any sense. Either she’s too stupid to live, or she’s hiding something. Either way, her 12-year-old is dead.

The results I got on this quiz seem completely incompatible, but actually I can see where they come from when I compare them to my beliefs LOL. I would have expected to score higher on Judaism and lower on Satanism, but otherwise…yeah, okay….

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don’t believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof). Agnosticism is a philosophy that God’s existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe. agnosticism 83% Buddhism 63% Islam 58% Hinduism 58% Satanism 58% Paganism 50% atheism 50% Christianity 42% Judaism 29%

Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)
created with QuizFarm.com

I do wish they wouldn’t use tables for the results of these things though; it only means I have to go in and edit them to make them fit my blog!

Went off to do some errands today and decided to check at a different B&Q just in case they had bookcases (those who read regularly may remember that the local B&Q told me they didn’t have any because bookcases are “seasonal”). I wanted one from B&Q because I want it to match the other one I’ve got in the dining-room. Oh, and it’s bigger than the ones Argos and Homebase do. And hey, guess what? Turns out that the store I went to today is in a different season to the local one (they’re only about 15 miles apart, but hey…)

So I got a bookcase :-). And I got extra shelf-support-thingies too, since some of those from the old bookcase were missing

Now, before you start thinking I’m a really sad case who is pleased by something as minor as being able to buy a bookcase, let me explain…I’m not denying the “sad case” bit, but there is justification for my joy here. The bookcase was needed for all the stuff that’s currently in boxes in the dining-room. The boxes in the dining-room are currently all over the floor, preventing us from doing anything in the dining-room. But we aren’t planning on using the dining-room for dining…at least, not yet. It’s where my birth-pool is going. See? Can’t put birth-pool up because of boxes, can’t get rid of boxes because nowhere to put contents. Now…well, tomorrow…there’ll be a bookcase for the contents

(I could use a few more Ikea bookcases too - unfortunately Ikea doesn’t care about us poor people over here, and so they refuse to open a store here *boo to Ikea*)

I could have used the birth-pool tonight actually - not that I was in labour or anything (oh, please - I’m only 35 weeks, I’ve got at least three or four months to go - oh, and I can’t wait to find out what that baby-countdown-ticker thingy at the bottom of the page does once it goes past 40 weeks :lol:). But anyway…there was certainly something going on and the pain-relief of floating in water might have helped. Just before dinner, I started getting muscular pains across the lower part of my bump - running from just in front of one hip around the bottom of the bump to just in front of the other hip. And they *$Y@*#^ hurt! Scratchy asked if it was like labour; I said if labour was like this I’d be having an elective c-section. No position was good - in some it was constantly painful, in some the pain came and went (like contractions do). I’ve no idea what was going on, but I’m very grateful that it has now stopped. Of course it wasn’t until after I’d spent an hour moaning and swearing very loudly that I realised the bathroom window was open…

Speaking of bathrooms, the cold water tap for our bath has stopped working. It was fine, then I turned it on a few nights ago and there was a little trickle of water…and then that disappeared too. Now it feels loose to turn, and no water comes out at all. Any plumbing experts out there who can tell us what the problem is (and, with luck, tell us it involves a five-minute job with a 99p part)?

Plans for weekend: catch up on dirty laundry, catch up on putting away clean laundry, put up bookcase :-D, empty boxes in dining-room, do some planning of “educational” stuff for kids (I’d like to be autonomous, but it makes us all crazy)…and maybe, if there’s time, we’ll do a trial run on that birthing pool - just to see how long it takes to inflate and fill and how much water we need, you understand. Still, once we’ve done that, it would be rather a pity not to get in and see how it feels, don’t you agree?

Request to cats: can you please learn how to come in through the conveniently-left-open window instead of sitting miaowing outside the door for half an hour until I heave myself up to open it for you? Thanks a bunch.

Freddy slipped and banged his head and scratched his arm. Nothing unusual about that - six-year-olds do this stuff all the time. But he was sitting down at the time, on a neighbour’s front step. Playing Scrabble.

His injuries are minor though - they’re nothing to what I’m going to do to Jack if he doesn’t stop talking soon. It’s been non-stop for about four weeks. At the top of his voice. Constantly. Argh!

Me (tearing hair out): “Please, please be quiet, just for five minutes!!!”
Jack: “Quiet? Five minutes? Okay. I go play outside wif my friends. My friends play on swings. I get golf club. I….” etc etc.

Barney is sulking, because the cat belonging to the girl across the street has six-week-old kittens and he thinks we should have one of them. Never mind that we already have two cats. And another cat who adopted the previous owners of the house (they tried to catch him to take him with them when they moved, but he wasn’t having it) and so has a shelter and food-bowl out the back and who, although he’s too scared to come into the house, clearly expects us to feed him (which we do). And never mind that Scratchy barely tolerates the existence of any of those cats. We should get a kitten. Yeah, right.

That’s me - the old woman who lived in a shoe. I have so many children I don’t know what to do. Well - actually only four are mine, but there are lots of other children playing out in my garden. And I do know what to do - let them get on with it

When we first looked at this house, the only thing that concerned us was the garden: was it big enough? Well, it’s not very big - but apparently the answer is yes, it is big enough. Big enough for a dozen children anyway

About a week ago, the cold water tap on the bath stopped functioning. I turned it on, and a little trickle of water came out, then that stopped too and there was No More Cold Water. So every time I ran a bath this week, I had to run the hot water in from the hot water tap, and stand there filling the kids’ measuring cups from the cold tap on the sink and tossing the water from them into the bath. There is a perfectly good shower in the ensuite bathroom (it still feels so pretentious saying “ensuite” :lol:) but sometimes a bath is what you need…especially if you’re me and you’re pregnant.

Being Handy Types, we couldn’t even figure out how to turn the water supply off (no, it’s not under the sink). We think it’s in the attic. But it doesn’t matter now, because Scratchy took the top of the tap off today and put back the little spring-y thing that had popped out - oh, about a week ago. Yep, just when the tap stopped working. Nope, he didn’t think to mention this before now.

And the tap works again.

I could complain, but I won’t. I’ll just be grateful that it’s easy to run a bath again, okay?

Now we need to get the broadband sorted out, because it keeps losing the connection for some reason. I must ring Pipex (again) tomorrow *sigh*

Well…more to the point, I now have space in my dining-room to set up a birthing pool

Haven’t got to putting away laundry yet, but at least it’s all clean. Maybe this evening. Then I have to sort through all the boxes of baby stuff and find the newborn-size clothes, which will, of course, produce a great deal more laundry. But I don’t care, ’cause I’ve got room for my birthing pool.

Jack (3 years old) is already winning arguments with me. This afternoon, when the garden was full of kids (mine and neighbours’), one of them had a toy gun, and Jack was playing with it, and was trying to show me.

Me: “I don’t like guns.”
Jack: “I like guns.”
Me: “I don’t like guns. They hurt people.”
J: “Not this one. It doesn’t work. See?”

Hm.

I’ve been through every one of the boxes in that huge pile that has occupied the corner of my bedroom since we moved in.

I used the highly scientific method of “when did this fit the others? before they were six months old or after?” - and sorted into two piles.

Well, two piles plus another pile for “equipment” (car seat insert, slings, etc), another for nappies, another for finally-found-maternity-clothes (not late at all :roll:) and another for teensy undershirts and socks.

I found baby-clothes I don’t even remember. I think a friend gave them to me for Jack, but they were already too small. At least, I hope that’s right, because I have no idea where else they might have come from.

So now I need to through the under-six-months pile and sort it by size, and do the same for the undershirts and socks. And then wash the lot. And the nappies.

Speaking of washing, my washing-machine stinks. Really smells bad. Like the clothes have been sitting in it wet for a week - only they haven’t, they’ve only been there for the duration of a cold wash plus five minutes. So I googled for solutions (google is my friend) and picked the one that said run the machine through a hot cycle with nothing in it except a bit of dishwasher detergent. That made sense - dishwasher detergent is supposed to clean metal and plastic stuff and get any goop off, right? So that’s what it’s doing now. We’ll see how it smells in a while when it’s done.

I’m rambling. I know that. I’ll stop now.

Today is George’s birthday party - well, Freddy’s too, they’re sort of sharing the party since Freddy missed out on his in May. Woke up this morning to glorious sunshine…but now it’s gone all cl***y

When we were children we were convinced that if we said r**n, it would r**n, so if anyone said r**n, we spent the next five minutes going “sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun….”. Anyone else ever do that, or was it just my family that was strange? (Actually, it might be better not to answer that last bit…)

(Update: The report on the party is a protected post; login to see it.)

I’ve been thinking about the article in today’s Western Mail, in which Geraint Davies of the NASUWT expresses his concerns about the opportunities that home-educated children have (or, in his opinion, don’t have) to develop social skills. I’ve been thinking about it, but I haven’t changed my conclusion that he’s talking through his nether quarters.

Quote: “But what concerns me is that those children will be missing out on developing their social and interpersonal skills with their peers.”

Yeah. All those home-educated kids who have all day to spend meeting at clubs and groups etc, and all evening free to do even more socialising (because they’re not stuck indoors doing homework) are really missing out.

Quote: “Education isn’t just about reading, writing and mathematics - it’s also about understanding the real world outside the home.”

I’d argue that the home is a large part of the “real world”. Unlike school, which ceases to be a part of the “real world” as soon as you hit 18, if not sooner. Unless, of course, you become a teacher, in which case you get to continue the pretence that school bears some resemblance to the “real world”.

Quote: “Schools provide an enriching menu of opportunities…”

Bwaaaahaaaahaaaa! Go on then, hands up - how many of you feel that school provided you with an “enriching menu of opportunities”? And how many of you feel that school didn’t do much but get in the way of your getting on with what you really wanted to do?

Quote: “…which fully prepares the child for adulthood and beyond.”

Huh? Fully prepares for adulthood? So how come we seem to constantly be hearing how pupils are leaving without the necessary skills to cope in adulthood?

As for the “beyond” bit…that would be….well, what exactly would it be? Death? Methinks Mr Davies’ school didn’t do a great job in teaching him how to present a convincing argument

I tried to leave a comment on the newspaper’s website, but it seems to only want to post my first three lines

Scroll down to previous entries for photos of my socially-deprived, home-educated children.

Isn’t this weather terrific? Everyone seems to think I must be finding it horrendous, but I love it. After a decade in and around Toronto, including the summer I was pregnant with Barney, the weather here in the last few weeks has been just great for me

So I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting out in the garden - I have to make the most of it, right? (It’s a good excuse anyway :lol:) Mostly I go out there with a book, but I don’t actually read much of it, in between talking to the children, admiring their somersaults on the trampoline, chatting on the phone (bless whoever invented the cordless phone!) etc. My plan is to read all the currently-published Harry Potter books before the next one is released - but I’m only getting through about one a week, and I’ve just finished #2, so I need to read faster. Numbers 4 and 5 are a lot longer than the first three!

The sun has gone, the rain is here

My midwives have left my notes at my house and they’ve got lots of…umm…bits I object to. Like inaccuracies. And comments that I have agreed to do things I haven’t agreed to do. Hm. I’ve also been deemed “suitable” to breastfeed, apparently. Quite apart from the fact that “suitable” may be an understatement (since I’ve breastfed all four previous children for extended periods), I have to wonder what kind of thing might have made me “unsuitable”, and exactly what justifies judging someone as such

We were supposed to have friends over today, but they’re sick so not coming. Instead, I’m off out this afternoon shopping - groceries, mostly, but I’m also going to see if I can find a bed for Barney and a dresser for George and Freddy (since the perfect one in Argos is still out of stock - btw, just what is the point in putting an entire range of furniture on sale when you don’t actually have stock of any single piece of it?) And I definitely need more laundry baskets; it seems that each child added to a family introduces a requirement for at least three more baskets. However Barney has learned to do his own laundry now (note that I don’t say he’s actually doing it, just that he has learned how) so maybe the amount I do will be reduced soon. Not that I mind doing laundry really; it’s one of the few household duties where you actually see results - start with pile of dirty stinky clothes, end with pile of nice clean fresh clothes - instead of being like vacuuming or dusting where you only notice it if it hasn’t been done. And let’s face it, throwing a bunch of clothes into a washing machine and pressing a couple of buttons is hardly a huge effort. Minimal energy, maximum results - that’s my kind of housework